On 18 August 2026, the Indian Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) released its audited statements for the periods of 2023-2024 and 2024-2025. The statements revealed that the Fund’s corpus increased by 17.8%, from ₹7,173.03 crore in 2023–24 to ₹8,452.07 crore in 2024–25, despite a decline in both domestic and foreign donations. The Fund is a public charitable trust established in 2020 for responding to emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic. It is chaired by the Prime Minister, with other Ministers acting as trustees and funded entirely through voluntary contributions from individuals and organisations.
The Fund has been repeatedly criticized from being exempted from the Right to Information (RTI) Act raising concerns about accountability in the use of public funds. The exemption is currently being challenged at the Delhi Court, which orally remarked that the Fund retains its ‘right to privacy’ despite being operated under the government’s infrastructure, particularly the Prime Minister’s Office. The lack of transparency is particularly concerning considering the high volume of donations in the fund and its limited disbursement of funds amid the overall funding restrictions faced by civil society.
The revelations have reignited civil society`s call for stronger safeguards to ensure transparency, accountability, and public disclosure in the management of charitable resources.